I was sitting with a wise sage friend of mine not to long ago and he said something profound to me, “Mike, you will get to a point when God takes more than He gives in your life.” Now before you religious fanatics have a chance to throw your two cents in please wait and think. Be self-aware. I have lost a lot in the last three months. I think I may be stepping into that stage. I have lost three friends in the last few months. My youngest has moved 15 hours from home, and I am in the middle of another big transition in my life.

Can you relate?

Lost a parent lately? Loved One?

Health Deteriorated?

I know I am not alone, and I hate funerals, but something really special has happened at the last three I have been too. I have reconnected with people from my past I love. I don’t mean people who tell me they love me, or people who love me for what I do for them. I have tons of them; I mean people I have loved and they have loved me most of my life. It has been heart warming. I hope people tell stories and drink beer and laugh at my funeral. I hope someone preaches my funeral that really knows me. I hope others experience what I have lately when I pass away.

I hate the loss we experience when someone dies, but I love the love that transpires between those who are left to mourn. It gives me peace knowing death is coming for all of us, and knowing I am loved by these people.

To those who I have reconnected to, and you know who you are, I hope we find the time to spend with each other. I don’t want to be reminded ONLY AT FUNERALS.

Love you guys!

 

RIP Terry Scott

Recently I pulled into a strip mall in North Atlanta to get a Subway sandwich for lunch. Pearl Jam’s song Jeremy interrupted my mission, forcing me to sit and reflect as I listened. I love the lyrics of Pearl Jam’s music; it stirs the deeper regions of my soul.

Soon my thoughts took me back to a time in my living room back home in Mississippi. Me and my best friend at the time and two girls from our high school were home alone jamming to Aerosmith. With tennis rackets in hand, we danced around the room jumping from the furniture like we were on stage at Madison Square Garden. Our guitar solos were blistering as we leaned back until we fell to the floor playing our hearts out on our homemade Fender guitars.

In the past few years, I’ve been contemplating and working toward some colossal life restructuring. I’ve made decisions and now I’m ready for everything to fall into place, so I can live happily ever after.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t all happened yet – imagine that. I don’t know if you’re like me, but when things don’t happen on my time frame, I begin to battle with discouragement. Historically, discouragement has taken home the victory more times than I care to admit, but this time something is different. During this particular scuffle, I began to contemplate the difference between ‘now’ and ‘yet’.

Here are some of my ponderings…

We’ve been programmed to believe that Now is far superior to Yet. We are inundated, saturated, and over stimulated with Now. So many things are easily and readily available instantly that the seduction of Now often overshadows the promise of Yet.

Now is a master of disguise. Rarely will you find Now riding into town wearing a black hat. No, Now is a shiny, eye-catching, kaleidoscope of colors. Now has slick packaging and comes with the promise of the instant, and boy, do we love instant. It’s alluring and comes with a soundtrack that causes Sirens to hang their heads in shame. Now is now and we can hardly resist it. What we fail to realize is this, Now is quite often the driving force behind bad decisions, which often turn into less than epic endings.

Yet, on the other hand, is the stuff longevity is made of. Yet is the ying to Now’s yang. Yet allows us the time to do a little more research, build confidence and trust and solidify our decisions within ourselves. Yet is steeped in patience, and if Yet is meant to be, it will always turn into Now.

Unfortunately, once you’ve allowed Now onto the scene, it is almost impossible to return to Yet, so choose wisely. I’m doing my best to break my programming and force Now to yield to Yet. It’s certainly not easy, but I’m confident the best is Yet to come.

Disclaimer:  I would love to claim this writing, but it belongs to a wonderful friend. You are a great writer Amy!

 

I have always wondered why we call the Friday before Easter Good Friday; now I understand the obvious answer of dying for my sins, but really Good Friday? The man I have chosen to pattern my life after died today. He suffered excruciating pain and humiliation for me? It is so easy to look forward to Sunday and the resurrection because we love a feel good story, but I ask my readers today to walk with a heavy heart and remember what happened on this day. Try to see through his eyes.

If you have watched The Passion you’ll understand where I am heading with this post. Jesus was beaten, scourged, verbal abused, spit upon and then crucified like a common criminal, with the people he loved watching, doing nothing to stop this dreadful act against the man who would ultimately save them.

As I sit in my office this morning I try to visualize with my soul what it must have felt like to be so betrayed, so defeated and so unloved. The pain from his wounds were probably no match for the pain of his broken heart. I can empathize with the line in the Bible, “Father, why have you forsaken me?”

Throughout scripture God’s word points to the crucifixion of a savior. David writes in Psalm 22,

“Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and feet. I can count my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”

Isaiah writes about Christ as well in Isaiah 53, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.”

You see the amazing part of these scriptures is that they were written a thousand years before his death. It was inevitable that Jesus must die for us. The whole Bible pointed to this day.

This morning I tried to think about what it must have been like to know you were dying for others. I would die for my children, my wife, my mother, my sisters and their families, and many good friends, but would I give up my life for someone who I didn’t even know?

The only way someone could do something like that is with LOVE! Thank you God for loving me! Pray for those today who don’t understand the depths of this kind of love.